The Karma Of Words Buddhism And The Literary Arts In Medieval Japan

"A masterly book . . . will prove of great assistance to a student of Japanese literature and thought from the eleventh century onwards."--Times Literary Supplement "A major contribution to the fields of Japanese studies, comparative literature, and history of religions . . . a book that begs for classroom use."--The Eastern Buddhist "Innovative and provocative . . . will be of interest not only to specialists in Japanese religion and Japanese culture, but also to literary critics and cultural historians."--Religious Studies Review "Rich and stimulating material . . . an important help and influence to all concerned with understanding the tradition that has shaped Japanese culture and religion."--History of Religions "Thought provoking, finely written . . . one of the more original and creative contributions to the study of medieval culture and religion to be produced by a Western scholar. . . . Can be read with profit by all Western students of Japanese culture . . . one of those rare books that has something to offer Japanese specialists in medieval studies."--Journal of Japanese Studies "A very important contribution to Japanese studies . . . a paradigm of the genre."--Pacific Affairs "This is an exciting, ground-breaking book."--Chanoyu Quarterly "I have been most impressed and even excited by what I have read."--Donald Keene, Professor Emeritus and Shincho Professor Emeritus of Japanese Literature at Columbia University "This is one of the most important books in Japanese studies in a long time and will influence the entire field."--Robert Bellah, former Elliott Professor of Sociology, Professor Emeritus at the University of California, Berkeley

This is the first monograph-length study in English of Kamo no Chomei, one of the most important literary figures of medieval Japan. Drawing upon a wide range of writings in a variety of genres from the Heian and Kamakura periods, Pandey focuses on the terms kyogen kigo (wild words and fancy phrases), shoji soku nehan (samsara is nirvana), hoben (expedient means), and suki (single-minded devotion to an art). She shows how these terms deployed by writers in an attempt to reconcile literary and artistic activities with a commitment to Buddhism. By locating Chomei within this broad context, the book offers an original reading of his texts, while at the same time casting a light upon intellectual preoccupations that were central to the times. Writing and Renunciation in Medieval Japan is an important contribution to a growing body of work that challenges the rigid distinction between the religious and literary—a distinction that would have made little sense to medieval writers, many of whom were poets as well as priests—and sheds light on the particular ways in which a religio-aesthetic tradition came to be articulated in medieval Japan. Through an examination of records left by Chomei's contemporaries, the book also traces the life of Chomei, particularly his activities as a court poet and the circumstances that led to his taking the tonsure.

According to the contributors to this volume, the relationship of Buddhism and the arts in Japan is less the rendering of Buddhist philosophical ideas through artistic imagery than it is the development of concepts and expressions in a virtually inseparable unity. By challenging those who consider religion to be the primary phenomenon and art the secondary arena for the apprehension of religious meanings, these essays reveal the collapse of other dichotomies as well. Touching on works produced at every social level, they explore a fascinating set of connections within Japanese culture and move to re-envision such usual distinctions as religion and art, sacred and secular, Buddhism and Shinto, theory and substance, elite and popular, and even audience and artist. The essays range from visual and literary hagiographies to No drama, to Sermon-Ballads, to a painting of the Nirvana of Vegetables. The contributors to the volume are James H. Foard, Elizabeth ten Grotenhuis, Frank Hoff, Laura S. Kaufman, William R. LaFleur, Susan Matisoff, Barbara Ruch, Yoshiaki Shimizu, and Royall Tyler. Originally published in 1992. The Princeton Legacy Library uses the latest print-on-demand technology to again make available previously out-of-print books from the distinguished backlist of Princeton University Press. These editions preserve the original texts of these important books while presenting them in durable paperback and hardcover editions. The goal of the Princeton Legacy Library is to vastly increase access to the rich scholarly heritage found in the thousands of books published by Princeton University Press since its founding in 1905.

Essays on Japan is a compilation of Professor Michael F. Marra’s essays written in the past ten years on the topics of Japanese literature, Japanese aesthetics, and the space between the two subjects.

These papers explore the debate over new directions in Japanese studies.

Not Seeing Snow examines the life, thought, poetry, and garden design of influential Zen monk Musō Soseki.

The Awakening of Modern Japanese Fiction is the first book to treat the literary practices of certain major modern Japanese writers as Buddhist practices, and to read their work as Buddhist literature. Its distinctive contribution is its focus on modern literature and, importantly, modern Buddhism, which Michihiro Ama presents both as existing in continuity with the historical Buddhist tradition and as having unique features of its own. Ama corrects the dominant perception in which the Christian practice of confession has been accepted as the primary informing source of modern Japanese prose literature, arguing instead that the practice has always been a part of Shin Buddhist culture. Focusing on personal fiction, this volume explores the works of literary figures and Buddhist priests who, challenged by the modern development of Japan, turned to Buddhism in a variety of ways and used literature as a vehicle for transforming their sense of selfhood. Writers discussed include Natsume Sōseki, Tayama Katai, Shiga Naoya, Kiyozawa Manshi, and Akegarasu Haya. By bringing Buddhism out of the shadows of early twentieth-century Japanese literature and elucidating its presence in both individual authors' lives and the genre of autobiographical fiction, The Awakening of Modern Japanese Fiction demonstrates a more nuanced understanding of the role of Buddhism in the development of Japanese modernity.